MRI

My MRI was finally approved! (I'm sorry, there's not much else to blog about. Pretty uneventful here.) Here's the history:

• The pain started in February walking up the stairs. The doctor said it must be a meniscus tear, really bad pain when he presses on that spot. My insurance did not approve an MRI. Said I needed to do physical therapy 3x/wk for 4 wks. Forget it! That would cost me $240. The pain went away, so I decided it must have been nothing.
• The pain came back in May and lingered. Annoying! I went back to the doctor with Mike and we became The Meniscus Twins. The doctor said meniscus pain can come and go like that. And it still really hurt when he pressed on it. Mike had his MRI and his knee is totally fine. My MRI was not approved again. The insurance said that I have to do an in-home exercise program for 4 wks with advil. And then show worsening symptoms. Nice.
• 4 wks later was yesterday. I went in to the doctor yet again. And the MRI was approved! My appointment is Aug 7th, and then I see the doctor Aug. 18th. I'm expecting the worst. The doctor said, "Have we never done an MRI on this knee? Hmm, there's a lot of grinding."
  

Stay tuned!

Bon Voyage

We had a Bon Voyage party at our house Sunday evening for Ben & Kara. Tons of people were out of town, but we still had a good turn out. I love having people over!

Lloyd Sturges took all of these pictures (isn't he artistic with all of the angled shots?) and Esther emailed them to me. Esther's funny husband Lloyd was trying to take a picture of us while we were blocking our faces. He finally caught us though. In the meantime, Esther told me the funniest story. Lloyd took this picture of her napping and then put it in the window by the front door just before her friend was scheduled to stop by. Esther woke up in time to run to the door and say, "I'm awake!" Her poor friend thought the picture was meant to tell her to go away. Lloyd is so funny.

We will miss the Foulk Family!

Happy Birthday, Darren!

Happy Birthday to my little brother!

You were always such a fun kid:


And pretty darn special. Ha ha!

(He pulled the sword out of the stone at Disneyland)

And now you're a terrific husband and dad.

I hope you had a great day.

I just wish I could have had a bite of that oreo ice cream cake!

My Star

Since Amanda asked about the star, I thought I would devote a post to it. Yes, it's there to collect all of the little things found at the bottom of the washer. I like to think that I'm good at checking pockets, but apparently I am not!

The star has more significance than that though. The last time my friend April and I were together, we went to one of those ceramic places where you pick something out and paint it. She really wanted to do it, so I went along. Since I'm not very creative, I was nervous about being responsible for a blank canvas. Now that I have these pieces, I am so happy I did it. April's piece is just like her - unique, vibrant and fun. And mine is very boring and conservative. When April passed away unexpectedly 5 1/2 years ago, I asked her husband if I could take the star home with me since it was something we did together. I wanted to put it where it would be of good use and I would see it often. The laundry room seemed like the perfect place!

I hide mine behind the computer in the kitchen.
That's ok because it's the star that I want to see. :-)

I Broke It

How do you break a washing machine? Maybe by washing a full sized, bulky comforter. The comforter shown isn't the one that did the trick, but it was one similar to it. I've always washed the kids' twin sized comforters without any problem. Well, Collin now has a full sized one. I've washed it a couple of times thinking it really is too big and I should go to the laundromat next time. Why didn't I listen to myself??

So, I washed the comforter and found the machine looking like this at the end of the cycle. I broke it! I really felt terrible. I took the top part off of the center piece and saw a loose bolt sitting in there. My handy husband went to Home Depot right away to get what he needed to reach down that far to tighten the bolt. Problem fixed! Or so I thought. I washed Matthew's comforter next and found it like you see in the picture. Ugh! I fixed it myself this time, and then washed a load of jeans. It came apart again! I fixed it once more and then tried a lighter load. The center piece stayed on this time. Mike thinks that there must be a nut under the machine that holds the bolt in tight. He told me before we went to Ohio that he would take care of it while we were gone. Weeks later, it is still the same. I wonder if he'll ever really look at it.

For now, I keep the extended thingamabob next to the washing machine and tighten the bolt every couple of loads or so to keep it on. I obviously forgot today . . .

Ok, back to blurbing. he he he!

Blurb Happy

Blurb is a lovely word, isn't it? I think it's kinda fun! www.blurb.com is the website you go to if you want to make your blog into a book. Blurb will upload all of your pictures and text for you, and then you get to play around with it to make it look nice in the book. I really like the idea of doing the book since I have most of my pictures on here, along with a whole bunch of journaling. And, I have not done any kind of scrapbooking since 1999. That's reason enough to try this out. So, I have given Blurb a chance and discovered that I love it. Last night I finished my first 2 pages. I am so Blurb Happy!



Well, finished for now. I'm sure there will be little changes as I go along, but this is basically it. It took me a while to get used to the program, but I am sure it will get easier as I use it more and more. I've already done 2 more pages this morning! (it doesn't take much to excite me) The program is really cool.

There are all sorts of backgrounds and stuff you can add in. And then there is a layout page where you can really go to town. Love it!

I think I have the potential of spending a lot of time on Blurb since it's so much fun. I will definitely have to set some limits for myself such as "Fold the laundry first, and then you can do a page." It's just the kind of thing I love - lining up the boxes, making everything fit right, etc. Since I began my blog at the end of 2008, I plan to do a book that includes Dec. of 2008 and all of 2009. It should make for a very nice and professional looking scrapbook. My only dilemma is how to include all of the little things we collect when we go on trips. The boys' Junior Secret Service Agent Certificates are the perfect example. Mike finally talked out the possibilities with me last night and I think we came up with a plan. I will scan what I want to include (after Mike fixes the printer so the scanner is hooked up to the computer) and I will put it in just like a picture. If there are things such as certificates that I can't bear to throw away because the originals are nice, I'll keep those in a separate binder. I suppose I could even reference it somehow. Sounds good to me!

Party!

What's a girl to do when she's not in California for her reunion?
Go out and party like it's 1989!

Ok, well, maybe we didn't actually party. But we did have a good time! Last night I went out with my good friends Kara and Cheryl. In our church we have this program called visiting teaching. Every woman has a set of visiting teachers assigned to her. Visiting teachers visit you once a month, teach you here and there about gospel principles, and basically become your "people" who are always there for you when you need them. SO, Cheryl (pictured below) and I were Kara's visiting teachers for a time. And now Cheryl and Kara are my visiting teachers. We've always been good friends anyway and knew we would have a blast together and also be able to rely on each other in times of need. As one of our "once a month" get-togethers, we decided early on to do a girls night out every so often. This would usually include dinner or a movie, or dinner AND a movie! Now comes the sad part - Kara and her cute family (pictured right) are moving to Germany within weeks. Last night was our last girls night out before Kara leaves. :-( We didn't let that get us down though. We had so much fun!



Kara had just come back from visiting family in Canada. (The picture above is of Kara and her family getting ready to go to the stampede. Love it!) Besides that trip, I hadn't seen Kara in probably two months with her golfing schedule and different family vacations we've each been on. And I haven't spoken to Cheryl much lately either. We were dying for a girls night out. Cheryl drove us in her husband's convertible. We all put on our sunglasses and Cheryl cranked up Katy Perry. We felt like teenagers! None of us were all that hungry for dinner, so we decided to go to TJ Maxx and look around until it was time for the movie. Thus the silly picture. ;-) We went to see The Proposal, which I had already seen but loved anyway. Such a funny movie.


All in all, we really enjoyed being together. Good friends are the best!

Summer Nights

This is our first summer in Connecticut spending more than a week or two at home. I have to say that I am really enjoying it so far! We have been fairly lax about bedtime these past couple of weeks, just having fun . . .

Mike, Matthew & Michael played some cabin card games by lantern the other night. The picture is incredibly blurry, but captures the moment. I thought it was very cute that they were recreating the nighttime atmosphere of Grandma & Grandpa Kochs' cabin!

And then the boys went upstairs to read some books. Michael usually reads a book to Mike each night. Matthew decided to join in, while Mike read his National Geographic magazine. Such silly boys!

Lauren and I had our own summer night activities underway. We call it movie night:

We watched 27 Dresses for something like the 4th or 5th time,
and then last night watched Jane Eyre. I LOVE Jane Eyre.

Hooray for summer!

Whatever Happened with the Bathroom?

Have you been wondering what happened with the bathroom? Well, I have finally decided to post my after pictures even though I have more to do. We are SO happy with the results!

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

It is amazing to see the transformation that bathroom went through. It feels so much bigger now. It seems like it took forever to get to this point though. Here are some pictures to remind you of the process.

Tearing apart the shower and starting to rebuild

Completely stripped down & wacky wreath on the door


Dust galore & lots of decisions!

It was all worth it! The shower is awesome from top to bottom:

What has really held me up is the decorating aspect. It has NOT been easy finding what I want! We knew right away that the barfy pink Mike put on the walls was totally wrong. We quickly made the decision to paint pita bread on the walls. ;-) It looks SO much better. After trying a few valances from JCPenney, I finally found the perfect valance at Country Curtains. That's where the color started. I LOVE the switchplates I picked out and ordered all on my own. Mike finally put those up last weekend. It's about time!

I would have to say that the mats and towels tie for being major pains in the butt. I bought green towels at first, but they brought out green in the pita bread paint. Just too much green. So then I went on a quest for towels to match the valance. You would think that would be easy. Apparently not for me! The cushy big Chris Madden towels we like from JCPenney don't come in the right color. So sad. I picked another one, but was completely wrong with the color. After about three tries, I found the perfect match. End of story? NO. The color was great, but the structure of the towel was not. I believe they were Linden Street. Lint, lint, lint and more lint . . . I washed them like three times trying to clear out all the lint. And then dried them even more. They were practically falling apart from all the shedding. Mike used one and declared what I already knew - they had to go back. I searched all over the internet for the right color and ended up at Macy's. Their Charter Club towels aren't too excessively priced, and they had the PERFECT color. When I walked into the towel department, I really expected Martha Stewart to walk up. Maybe she would be chatting with Usher or someone else from those commercials. Macy's is so clean and perfect looking! But then no one was shopping there. Maybe that's how it stays so nice. ANYWAY, my towels were on clearance! I got them for a really good deal and they look great. Yay!

I started playing around with bath mats way early on. I had maybe five different sets from a bunch of different stores. I was so frustrated trying to decide which ones would be right. The decision was easy though once I had the other pieces in place, especially the switchplates.

Now I need something for the walls! I cannot find anything I like. I am totally and completely open to suggestion. Once I have something on the walls I can honestly say the bathroom is complete. But I am happy with it for now. I'm not just happy, I'm ecstatic! It's a beautiful thing.

Too, Too Cute

My mom emailed me these pictures from the 4th of July, and I figure they are just too cute not to share. The Shepherd family tradition for years has been to go to my mom's cousin Penelope's house in San Diego for the holiday. She and Bob live right on the beach practically next door to Sea World. Everyone spends the day on the beach, comes back to the house for dinner, and then goes back to the beach for fireworks. It's always a really great day.


This year I guess Marianne's family must have been the only ones to go with my parents. They flew to San Diego from Utah and had a wonderful weekend. They even went to Sea World. I wish I could have seen them. The kids are always so much fun to be around. And Marianne is pretty fun too! What a good looking family. :-)

The Boys in Gettysburg

Back to Gettysburg once more . . . I finally went through all of Mike's pictures and got the details for the pictures so I can post them here. I probably should have done a slideshow with all the battle stuff, but I didn't. It's all here, so it might seem long. Ok, it IS A LONG POST. But, believe me, there are more pictures that I didn't include!

At any rate, the boys seemed to have a great time together camping and doing guys' stuff. The camping pics are from the first night we were there. Fireflies were all around our campsite, and Matthew was catching them on his fingers. At one point, he actually had a firefly on each finger! I had never seen one up close and was surprised that they look like beatles.

The big plan was to go to the Gettysburg Reenactment activities all day long. We didn't think Michael would enjoy it too much, and we were right. Poor Michael! The first part of the day was rough for him. But it looks like they got to see some neat things.



This first set of pictures shows the cavalry riding by. (you can see collin taking the pictures out the window) I am always amazed when I think about these guys who go all over to reenact battles. It's actually pretty cool. They have authentic uniforms and guns and cannons . . . it must have been fun to see.

Ok now, this is the big exciting moment. Have you ever heard of Ken Burns? Or maybe The Ken Burns Effect? Well, we've heard of him. And we love him! Ken Burns is a producer who has made a bunch of awesome movies for PBS in the last years. The Civil War is a huge one, and Lewis & Clark is another great one. So, Mike took the kids over to the visitor center, and there was KEN BURNS signing books! He signed something for Mike, and Mike got this shot of the boys with him. So cool!

Waiting in line for the big reenactment. Long line!


This is it!












The end of a long day. Beautiful sky!

Mike was planning on doing reeenactment stuff the next day as well, but quickly came to the conclusion that Michael needed something a little more interactive. Their first stop was the museum at the visitor's center.

Trying to lift a soldier's pack.

Shortly after walking in the door, one of the rangers approached the boys. He said, "You two look like you would like to join the army!" And that they did!

We're in the army now!

Mike said they lined the boys (and girls) up and taught them how to be soldiers. It looks like they learned how to carry a rifle, how to load it, and how to carry it. They learned how to march in a line and all that. And then they proceeded to march all around the visitor's center. It looks like it was a very serious business.

Mike is standing in front of President Eisenhower's house in Gettysburg.

I didn't know he had a house there. Did you?

It's actually very interesting:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s association with the town and battlefield of Gettysburg began in the spring of 1915 when, as a cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point, he visited with his class to study the battle. Three years later during the First World War, Capt. Eisenhower found himself back in Gettysburg with his wife Mamie and their first son. Despite his hope for duty overseas, he had been appointed commander of Camp Colt, the US Army Tank Corps Training Center located on the fields of Pickett’s Charge. . . After World War II, while president of Columbia University, the General and his wife returned to Gettysburg to search for a retirement home. In 1950, fondly recalling Camp Colt days, they bought a 189 acre farm adjoining the Gettysburg Battlefield. Their retirement was delayed, however, when Eisenhower left for Europe to assume command of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. During his first term as President, he and Mamie renovated their Gettysburg home. On weekends, the Eisenhowers entertained family and friends at the farm. Though Eisenhower used his weekends at Gettysburg to escape the pressures of the Presidency, work was never far away. He began each morning with a briefing on world events. Meetings with staff were common especially during his heart attack recuperation in 1955 when the Gettysburg Farm became the “Temporary White House.”

Collin said that Ike would have the Secret Service stand in as golfers when he played golf in gettysburg. They would have rifles in their golf bags. Funny! And I also read that Camp David is actually named after President Eisenhower's grandson. But he spent more time in Gettysburg than at Camp David. Who knew?

Matthew & Michael are studying the
Junior Secret Service Training Manual.

After much hard work and determination, Matthew & Michael were awarded
badges and certificates as they became official Junior Secret Service Agents.


Back outside to the farm


Standing in the Observation Tower

(Don't you love the words on Collin's shirt? It's like
the two little guys are bringing him in. He he he!)

Who is that good looking guy?
Oh, that's my husband!

View of the Eisenhower Farm & Little Round Top

Little Round Top "was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left flank on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Considered by many historians to be the key point in the Union Army's defensive line that day, Little Round Top was defended successfully by the brigade of Col. Strong Vincent. The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, fought the most famous engagement there, culminating in a dramatic downhill bayonet charge that is one of the most well-known actions at Gettysburg and in the American Civil War."

Devil's Den is a site right next to Little Round Top
where some fierce fighting took place.

"Devil's Den has become something of a legend among snipers because of a specific engagement that took place during the second day of the battle. A Confederate sharpshooter had taken up position, harassing the Union artillery battery, preventing them from firing."

Someone had carved "1873" into the rock. I tried to draw it in so you can see.

This is the Gettysburg New York Monument on Little Round Top
which honors fallen soldiers from New York state.

Looking down at The Den & Michael posing at The Angle

That spot really is called The Angle. I think someone important was killed there.

And that is Gettysburg! Wow. And I didn't even go! Oh, we can't forget the last campfire . . .

Matthew built his first fire and lit it by himself. Pretty impressive!

What a fun trip. :-)